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Eleven new ed-tech services to know about

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These emerging ed-tech services were participants in the SIIA’s Innovation Incubator program for spring 2014

‘Mosa Mack: Science Detective’ was one of two Educators’ Choice winners.

A “discovery engine” that uses a personalized search service to help professionals find reputable online degree programs from accredited universities, and an assessment application that allows teams of instructors to grade documents online, were among the new ed-tech services recognized for their promise by the Software and Information Industry Association’s Education Division [1].

The SIIA’s Innovation Incubator Program [2] identifies and supports ed-tech entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies.

The program is open to applicants from academic and nonprofit institutions, pre-revenue and early-stage companies, and established companies with newly developed technologies. Ten finalists and one alternate were recognized during the SIIA’s 2014 Education Industry Summit in San Francisco May 12-14.

Summit participants chose Ranku [3] as the service Most Likely to Succeed. A “discovery engine” for online degrees, Ranku uses personalized search through LinkedIn and Facebook to help adults find reputable online degrees from accredited nonprofit universities that struggle to attract students.

Crowdmark [4] was the ed-tech service judged Most Innovative. It’s a web-based application that facilitates the collaborative assessment of documents on a large scale. Crowdmark makes it easy for instructors to assemble and manage teams of qualified markers for large classes such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Two services tied as the Educators’ Choice: ClassFlow [5], a free software program from Promethean that facilitates collaborative teaching with technology [6], and Mosa Mack: Science Detective [7], an online library of animated science mysteries for middle school students. These inquiry-based activities are designed to empower all students, but especially underrepresented populations such as girls and minorities.

Smart Science [8], a series of interactive, video-based online science labs for students in grades 4-12, was voted the runner-up in the Most Likely to Succeed category. Nepris [9], an online platform that connects STEM teachers with industry experts in order to expose students to real job skills and role models, was the runner up as Most Innovative new ed-tech service.

Here are the other four Innovation Incubator participants:

Capture Education [10]’s ScheduleSmart software is an intelligent scheduling program that analyzes elements such as grades, attendance, learning style, and interests to place students in classes where they’re most likely to succeed.

EDUonGo [11] is a cloud-based platform that makes it easy for educators and subject-matter experts to create virtual courses. The basic service is free and includes 2 gigabytes of storage; if instructors want to charge for their course, EDUonGo takes 20 percent of the revenue.

Million Dollar Scholar [12] is an open online platform that teaches high school and college students how to find and win scholarships for school.

Mondokio International News [13] compiles and translates news articles on major topics from around the world. Mondokio, which means “world eye” in Italian, is not only a platform for global literacy; it also helps students understand biases in news coverage by allowing them to consider multiple perspectives on the same topic.

In addition, SchoolToolsTv.com [14] was chosen as an alternate for the Innovation Incubator program. A state-of-the-art video website, SchoolToolsTv.com provides teachers with daily, one-minute videos that help teach important social skills, create a healthier school climate and reduce bullying.

“Innovative technology in the classroom is key to revitalizing the educational experience,” said Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA’s Education Division, in a press release. “This year’s Innovation Incubator participants have provided products that are central to keeping our students engaged while promoting creativity and entrepreneurship.”

Follow Editorial Director Dennis Pierce on Twitter: @eSN_Dennis [15].

New: 11 of the best iOS and Android apps

Posted By By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor, @eSN_Laura On In Apps,Curriculum,District Management,eClassroom News,Featured on eSchool News,IT Management,Resource,Teaching & Learning,Top News | No Comments
apps-2014

Educational apps, aimed at students and teachers, can help boost productivity and achievement

Apps are some of the most popular tools in education, and with good reason–they’re easily accessible on mobile devices and can provide quick and targeted help.

Understanding how, when, and why to use apps gives teachers and students deeper understanding of how these relatively new tools can support student learning, teacher instruction, and day-to-day organization and management.

Here, we’ve gathered 11 apps that are useful, educational, help with organization, or are just plain fun. Do you have a favorite educational app that you use with students, colleagues, or for yourself? Be sure to mention it in the comments section below.

(Next page: 11 useful educational apps)

Following, you’ll find the app name, link or links to download, and the developer’s description.

[Editor’s note: App prices are current as of press time, but are subject to change.]

1. TED, iPhone/iPad [16], Android [17], Free

TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends. Find more than 1,700 TEDTalk videos and audios (with more added each week) on the official TED app.

2. Star Chart, iPhone/iPad [18], Android [19], Free

All you have to do is point your device at the sky and Star Chart will tell you exactly what you are looking at. Using GPS technology, an accurate 3D universe, and all of the latest high tech functionality, Star Chart calculates – in real time – the current location of every star and planet visible from Earth and shows you precisely where they are; even in broad daylight.

3. Wabbitemu, Android [20], Free

Wabbitemu creates a Texas Instruments graphing calculator right on your Android device. Wabbitemu supports the TI-73, TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, TI-83 Plus, TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-85, and TI-86. Fast and convenient, Wabbitemu allows you to always have your trusty calculator with you. Because Wabbitemu is an emulator, the calculator it creates will act exactly like the real thing.

4. yHomework, iPhone/iPad [21], Android [22], Free

Enter your expression or equation, and get the full step-by-step solution! Just the same as your teacher would write on the board, and just the same as you would solve it in your notebook. Students could use this to check work they’ve already done, or to review equation steps learned in class.

5. Rover, iPad [23], Free

Can’t access Flash on your iPad? Rover can. Rover is the free to download education app that streams educational Flash content to your iPad.

6. Common Core State Standards, iPhone/iPad [24], Android [25], Free

View the Common Core State Standards in one convenient app. A great reference for students, parents, and teachers to easily read and understand the core standards. Quickly find standards by subject, grade, and subject category (domain/cluster). This app includes Math standards K-12 and Language Arts standards K-12. Math standards include both traditional and integrated pathways (as outlined in Appendix A of the common core) and synthesizes Language Arts standards with the Corresponding College and Career Readiness Standards (CCR’s).

7. Kidblog, iPhone/iPad [26], Free

Create and manage Kidblog accounts from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Teachers can monitor blog activity and moderate comments and posts. Students can easily upload photos and videos directly from their iOS device – with no embed codes or HTML.

8. Shake-a-Phrase, iPhone/iPad [27], Android [28], $1.99

Shake-a-Phrase is a fun language app for creative writing prompts, vocabulary, and parts of speech practice. Perfect for learning and laughing in the classroom or on-the-go, it features over 2,000 words and definitions in 5 engaging themes for ages 8+.

9. Grammaropolis, iPhone/iPad [29], Android [30], Free

Grammaropolis is where grammar lives! Hailed as a Schoolhouse Rock for the 21st Century, Grammaropolis uses the parts of speech as animated characters whose personalities are based on the roles they play in the sentence. Users must make in-app purchases for full access.

10. Nearpod, iPhone/iPad [31], Android [32], Free

The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students’ iPads, iPhones or iPods. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. Nearpod is a synchronous solution for the use of iPads, iPods and iPhones in the classroom.

11. Endless Reader, iPhone/iPad [33], Free

This app introduces “sight words”, the most commonly used words in school, library, and children’s books. Kids need to recognize these words by sight in order to achieve reading fluency. Recognizing sight words is advantageous for beginning readers because many of these words have unusual spelling, cannot be sounded out using phonics knowledge, and often cannot be represented using pictures.

[Editor’s note: For more resources on iOS, read “15 iOS 11 tricks” from BloomTimes here [34].”]

How do teachers use technology?

Posted By By Meris Stansbury, Managing Editor for eCampus News, @eSN_Meris On In Featured on eSchool News,IT Management,Research,Top News | No Comments
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National data on all public school teachers reveals teacher technology use across the U.S.

In education it’s easy to get data from one school, district, or even state. But obtaining national data, encompassing most of the teachers in the U.S., is no easy feat, and breaking that data into technology use is even rarer. However, that’s exactly what the National Center for Education Statistics [35] (NCES) accomplished.

The data compiled [36] by the NCES is one of the most comprehensive breakdowns of how teachers use technology in classrooms, from professional development to its use in parent and student communication. It also details the availability of the technology, and whether or not teachers make use of it.

What’s interesting to note, is that technology availability and use don’t differ as dramatically across geographically, and perhaps socio-economically, diverse schools and districts as many may think—perhaps computers really are ubiquitous these days.

There is one catch, however: The data, which is the most current in terms of scope, is from 2009. Interestingly enough, this snapshot of a few years ago leads to some interesting thoughts, such as:

Supposedly, the NCES will have teacher technology use data available soon from the 2013 survey. Be sure to check back, as surely this data will have some interesting results of its own!

(Next page: Teacher technology use infographic)

Infographic looks best in either Chrome or Firefox. For a closer look, click on the URL: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1862395-teachertech [37]

Reference in the infographic is hyperlinked to its original source for more information.

[field name=piktochart]

Past Google’s first page: Gauging students’ global search skills

Posted By By Alan November On In Curriculum,eClassroom News,Featured Best Practice,Featured on eSchool News,IT Management,Resource,Teaching & Learning | 1 Comment
Google-search

Digging deeper into Google’s search functionality leads students to surprising discoveries

Gil C / Shutterstock.com

“Did he seriously just ask that? How old is this guy?” Well yes, I recently seriously just asked a group of students if they knew how to use Google. And yes, the students got a good laugh from my question.

“Of course I know how to use Google,” I have been told by every student to whom I have asked the question.

“Really? Let’s see. This won’t take long,” I promise.

The truth is that every student can use Google on some level. What is interesting to me is that when I interview students about their search strategies and I ask them if they have ever asked their teachers for help with a search the answer is almost always, “No”. What if our students are overconfident about their search skills?

If you watch your students use Google you will probably observe that most begin their search by simply typing the title of the assignment verbatim into Google (i.e., Iranian Hostage Crisis). They do this partly because this technique can yield satisfying answers to basic questions, and because in many cases they haven’t been explicitly taught to do anything else. It is the easy way out that does not require much in the way of critical thinking.

(Next page: Digging deeper into Google search strategies)

After their results pop up, most students will look only at the first screen of results, believing that those top hits contain everything they will need to complete their assignment. In many ways, this response is natural –it’s quick and easy. If they do not find what they are looking for within three tries they will likely give up and assume that Google cannot fulfill their request.

What happens when a meaningful search requires more thinking than simply typing in the assignment? The internet presents our students with the significant challenge of learning how to access and synthesize massive amounts of information from all over the world. To manage overwhelming amounts of information, it is critical to learn how to design searches that take you past the first page of results. The quality of information can lead to a over simplification of an issue or lead to a much deeper understanding of the nuances of a topic.

In today’s global economy, global empathy is one of the most critical skills we must teach our students. To this end, utilizing the internet strategically can lead students to understand other cultures and viewpoints and spark authentic learning experiences. While the internet provides us with the opportunity to explore issues from multiple perspectives and exposes our simplified narratives, the reality of how Google targets basic search often leads to localized results.

The irony of having access to thousands of channels of information is that many of our students seem satisfied when they find the most visually accessible version of the truth. Students must be educated to ask themselves, “How can I design a search or series of searches that yields the highest quality results? As educators, we must equip our students with the skills and strategies to help them develop sophisticated search strategies that will enable them to engage in critical analysis.

Let’s take a look at a detailed example assignment, “the Iranian Hostage Crisis.”

If you key in “Iranian Hostage Crisis” in Google, and you are in North America, your search in the top screen will yield no sources from Iran, despite the fact that this was where the event took place. Prior to the rise of the internet, omitting Iranian sources may have been completely acceptable and practical in a school setting. There simply were no sources from Iran in the average well-stocked school or town library.

When I challenge students to redesign their search to yield sources from Iran, they usually add the words “Iranian sources” into the search bar. Sadly, this will also lead to zero content from Iran’s perspective, and students will continue to be flooded with results detailing a Western version of the event.

Whenever students are researching a problem that involves another country, they should make use of “country codes” and/or use the advanced search tools in Google to limit their search to a particular country. (A list of country codes can be found here: http://www.web-l.com/country-codes/ [38]. )“IR” is the two letter country code for Iran. If students want the shortcut to generate Iranian sources, they can type “site:ir” into the search and the results will be from Iran. (Site: is a Google operator that limits results to content in the extension portion of a web address.)

While getting to Iran is just a matter of looking up the two-letter country code and understanding the Google operator “site,” the creative part of the search is imagining the Iranian perspective. Essentially all students will type: “site:ir Iranian hostage crisis” after they are taught to limit their search to Iran. At that point, students must be challenged to question their perspective and possible biases: “Do you think the Iranians called this event the Iranian Hostage Crisis?”

This is where Wikipedia can be quite useful. With a quick scan of the Wikipedia article about the Iranian Hostage Crisis, students learn that in Iran the event is known as “The Conquest of the American Spy Den.” (Many teachers decry the use of Wikipedia as an authoritative source, and it is true that consulting Wikipedia alone does not represent a comprehensive search strategy. However, Wikipedia may be used to expose researchers to content that can lead students to refine their search.)

Now that we have sorted out the mechanics of accessing the Iranian sources and perspectives, here is the revised Google search:

site:IR Conquest of the American Spy Den

Using this new search, students are presented with an entirely new set of sources, all from Iran. But why stop there? How do we know these sources are credible? What if we could isolate our search to sources from Iranian universities? To access this type of refined search, students can search:

site:ac.ir Chronology of Conquest of the American Spy Den
*The addition of “ac” indicates an institution of higher education, much like “.edu” does for American universities.

Students will notice that this new search has no resemblance to their first, and that the information contained in this latest search offers a vastly different account of the American-named “Iranian Hostage Crisis.” Using this new search, students are empowered to access a perspective they may not otherwise have considered. Students have now used Google to gain a perspective than they previously imagined was possible.

When confronted with examples of using the advanced features of Google, the students who previously laughed at the question, “Do you know how to use Google?” are stunned, and in some cases even embarrassed or mad. They wonder why they have never been taught how to perform this type of search. They often are quick to ask: “What else don’t I know?”

There is great news in this response. Students do not want to feel inadequate when they use the internet. Once you start to teach them the tricks of deep research they will often ask for more. With some minor adjustments in how we think about and teach basic online research skills, teachers can help create an environment where students take pride in their ability to “zoom in” on a topic as deeply as possible. It makes huge sense for a teacher to ask students to show their search strategies as well as their results. In this way, teachers can gain insights into how students thought about querying a search engine.

You have to love it when students demand to learn more!

Alan November is Senior Partner and Founder of November Learning. Each summer Alan leads the Building Learning Communities summer conference with world-class presenters and international participants. Visit http://novemberlearning.com/blc [39] for more details.

6 hallmarks of the ‘connected classroom’

Posted By By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor On In Digital Issue Article,Featured on eSchool News,Teaching Trends,Top News | No Comments
connected-classroom